Saturday, February 17, 2018

I just LOVE cheesecake. It is one of my favorite desserts and yet I do not enjoy making real cheesecake as I have yet to have any real success with it.

I do however enjoy a nice no-bake variety of cheesecake and thought I'd play around with a new recipe for it this week. I made a no- bake chocolate cheesecake that was simply amazing!

I found a package of Biscoff cookies at our local Walgreens a week or so ago and snapped them right up. I had never had these cookies until flying to Charleston this past summer and simply fell in love with them on the plane. They remind me a bit of a graham cracker but with a bit more crunch and a slightly different taste.

I thought they'd make a wonderful crust for the cheesecake. I was right too! It was amazing.

Here's how I made my cheesecake:

20 Biscoff Cookies

4 Tablespoons melted butter

1 cup milk

1 small package vanilla instant pudding

1 cup semi- sweet chocolate morsels, melted

1 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened

1 container cool whip

Some hot fudge for decorating

In my food processor I pulsed the Biscoff cookies into crumbs and mixed them with the melted butter in a small bowl. I would have pressed them into a crust in my traditional pie plate but I had already used them both and had to resort to using my springform pan instead. I then set the pan in the fridge and worked on the filling.

In my stand mixer I combined the milk and pudding mix following the package directions.

I melted the chocolate chips in the microwave.

I added the melted chocolate and the cream cheese to the pudding and beat on high; scraping the sides of the bowl when needed.

I spread the chocolate filling on top of the crust and put the whole thing back into the fridge until I was ready to serve it.

I removed the sides of the springform pan and covered the cheesecake with cool whip then drizzled it with melted chocolate.

While my cheesecake was a bit flat since I had planned on using a pie plate and not a springform pan it was quite delicious! I found the cheesecake to be light and airy and not at all heavy; which I just loved.

Friday, February 16, 2018

I'm doing something just a bit different this week! Since my boys were still under the weather for a good portion of the week there wasn't a whole lot to say about our week. We did get some schoolwork done each day but mostly we laid around all week watching TV & movies and playing video games again.

However there were some things I'd like to remember about this week and that's where my Friday Favorites comes in. Here are some of the things that made me happy this week.

1. Alec and I finally managed to try out the new game he got for his birthday called Ticket To Ride. He was still feeling a bit icky on Sunday but we played anyway since he was just so sick of staring at a screen. We had such a great time playing together and he beat me by 9 points!

2. A few days this week when the sun was shining and the temperatures were in the 40's, I went for a walk all by myself in the afternoon. I just took a quick 30 minute walk to the mailbox and back but I really enjoyed soaking in the warmish air and all that sunshine. I listened to the flowing water and watched the sun sparkle off the freezing rocks and branches.

3. Valentine's day! Sure my husband was sick and was unable to get a gift for me or celebrate in any real way but I had a fun day with my boys. They each got some little bags of chocolates and the two younger boys got some cute stuffed animals. I always look for little ways to make our day special.

4. Easter candy is out on the shelves. It sounds weird to be thinking of Easter candy already but I can't deny that I was super excited to see Cadbury mini eggs out already (and in dark chocolate varieties too!). I was also quite happy to find Lindt chocolate eggs. I love Lindt chocolates and you know I had to buys a few just to try them. They did not disappoint!

5. I spent a whole day in the kitchen cooking. It's not often that I want to bake and cook up a storm in the kitchen but this week I really wanted to; and I indulged myself. I spent almost an entire day cooking up two quiches, a chicken/broccoli/rice casserole, a new chicken cordon blue casserole, a huge salad, a fruit salad, and some Texas toast French toast. The house smelled amazing and I have lots of meals in the freezer for night that I don't feel like cooking. Plus I made an amazing no bake chocolate cheesecake (recipe on the blog tomorrow!)

6. The days are lighter longer! I know that our days lengthen a lot during the month of February but this week I really noticed how light it was already getting at 6 am and how the sun was just setting around 5:30. I love all the extra daylight.

7. We had a fun game day on Thursday! In place of school the boys asked to work with some games. We played Harry Potter Scene it, Cranium, Scrambled States of America, and The Clumsy Thief

8. We took an on-line marine biology class together at supercharged science. We got a lot of ideas for other experiments to try at home and enjoyed learning a bit more about marine biology through this fun 90 minute class.

Thursday, February 15, 2018

Honestly I don't think I have spent as much time on any other letter of the alphabet as I did with Q! Q really stumped me! I could not think of an author or series that started with Q. I did a few Google and internet searches and found Sean Qualls.

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Thanks for stopping by and joining us again this week as we host another virtual refrigerator arts and crafts link up.

Shaving cream is not what most people think of when they think of art but we have used shaving cream a lot for some really fun art projects.

1. We mixed equal parts school glue and shaving cream to make puff paint that is just perfect for making snowmen and painting chimney tops in any winter snow scene. Add some food coloring or paint to it and you could use it to paint ice cream cones too!

2. We made fluffy dough using shaving cream and corn starch for playing with and while it's not the type of arts and crafts project we can enjoy for years to come the boys always enjoy experimenting with different play dough recipes.

3. We used shaving cream and liquid food coloring to dye Easter eggs one year (we don't eat our eggs since we tend to dye them at least a month in advance and use them as a table decoration). We just took a tray of shaving cream, dotted some food coloring on, swirled the colors with a toothpick and rolled our eggs in it. They came out all swirly and tie dyed looking!

4. We have made Valentine hearts, Christmas trees, and even snowflakes using shaving cream and liquid watercolors for some fun marbling effects. This is a fun craft that works for all seasons too-- think leaves in the fall, flowers cutouts for the spring, fish for summer, shamrocks, etc. Just take some plain white paper or coffee filters, cut into the shapes you want and then lay them across a tray of shaving cream that has been marbled with food coloring or liquid watercolors.

5. Made our own bath paints! Using a muffin tin we sprayed some shaving cream in each section, added just a slight bit of food coloring and mixed up our "paints."

Do you have any favorite shaving cream projects? We'd love to hear about them.

Now without further ado I invite you to grab a "magnet" and link up your arts and crafts or how- to posts below and visit some other bloggers to see what they shared on their refrigerators.